2011 At-a-Glance

January: Mini-vacation in Vegas with Grandma and Grandpa Hunter over Martin Luther King weekend. Girls loved the giant Forever 21 store there. Kamiko got a cool jacket.

February: Allie turns 15, Mom starts helping with AFHS Boys Soccer Booster Club - a huge undertaking. She rounds up a lot of donations from local businesses. Kamiko is admitted to BYU!

March: AFHS Boys Soccer Team Fundraiser (soccer boot camp). Lots of kids participate and the team earns a lot of money. Soccer season officially begins at the high school.

April: Mel's soccer season is going, too. Trip to visit Easts in CA for Spring Break. Marie Sykes marries Eli Evans in Bountiful Temple. Mom gets some cool red shoes. Kamiko gets injured and misses a lot of soccer games.

May: Melia turns 13. Dad goes to Georgia for a conference and gets to see his older brother, Kalei. Mom emcee's Kamiko's last end-of-season soccer banquet. Mom is officially done being a soccer mom for him. It turned out to be a great experience.

June: Kamiko graduates from AFHS. Tutu and Papaw come from Texas and Aunty Edna and Lynne Shiroma come from Hawaii. Kamiko begins Summer Term at BYU and moves into Heritage Halls. Within days, Melia has transformed his old bedroom into her's. We adjust to just having the girls around. Allie goes to yearbook camp.

July: Happy Birthday, America! Mini-vacation in Vail, Colorado. Connor Crockett is baptized here in Utah. Allie and Melia go to YW camp at Bear Lake. Mom has a very quiet week at home without any kids and with dad at work.

August: Kamiko turns 18! Kamiko gets his wisdom teeth out and makes everyone laugh with the video mom took while he was still on laughing gas. Allison East marries James DeVuyst in Oakland Temple. All of us, except Melia, go to CA. Melia stayed home to play in soccer tournament. We go to Bass Lake after wedding to visit Mike. School starts. We get Honu, the kitty, on the 27th, while at Melia's soccer team bake sale at Walmart. Dad is in charge of successful ward day of service. Mom is a team mom again, this time for Utah Sol, Melia's team. Kamiko begins taking mom's cooking class.

September: Dad turns 47 and starts to teach Dutch at BYU. We celebrate one year of dinner group. In 2010, we joined Trumps and Bowdens in a dinner group. I cook once a week for all 3 families and deliver dinner at 6:00 pm. Maria Trump cooks one night and Amy Bowden cooks another night. This means I only cook about twice a week, because the other nights dinner is delivered or we eat left-overs. It's great. I should have gotten a wife to cook for me sooner. Kamiko is hired in food labs as TA when a TA has to quit for health reasons.

October: Mom turns 45. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, dies on mom's bday. Mom and dad celebrate 20th anniversary in Salt Lake City, seeing Mary Poppins Broadway Production, going out to eat, and shopping in Park City. Soccer is still going for Melia. Kamiko is playing intramural soccer at BYU. Mom watches a couple of his games. Halloween!

November: Uncle Mike comes to spend the holidays. We, including grandma and grandpa Hunter and Mike, go to Colorado for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun last year that we had to go again. Highlights were Black Friday shopping and the man with tourettes disorder that works at Blockbuster. We get food storage from Daily Bread!

December: Go to see "Savior of the World" with friends from mom's work. See Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert, which NEVER disappoints. Awesome! Melia plays Silent Night on her ukulele in ward Christmas Recital, while Brittany Allen sang along. It was great. Boys go to BYU basketball games. Kamiko is home a lot. We meet his girlfriend, Sam. She stays here a bit during finals. Sinter Klaas party with Keenan's mission friends. Lots of late nights with friends.